By Samuel A. October 27, 2025
The first El Clasico of the 2025/26 season saw Real Madrid get their first win over Barcelona in six games, after losing the past five across all competitions. In the highly tense match Jude Bellingham scored and assisted for the first time in La Liga this season as Real Madrid prevailed in the breathless and fiery encounter. The England midfielder produced a clever through ball after getting past pedri to set up Kylian Mbappe for the 22nd minute opener, and then scored to restore their lead in the 43rd minute, five minutes after Fermin Lopez had levelled. It was Bellingham’s fourth goal in five appearances in the clash between the league’s top two sides, with Xabi Alonso’s men moving five points clear of Barcelona as the game ended with Pedri sent off.
Real lost all four Clasicos in all competitions last season, but from minute one set about breaching Barcelona’s high defensive line. The hosts were awarded a penalty when Vinicius Jr went down inside the opening two minutes, but a video assistant referee (VAR) review determined the Real Madrid winger had kicked the leg of Lamine Yamal before he went down instead of the other way round as initially assumed.
Ten minutes after VAR had ruled out a stunning 25-yard Mbappe volley from the edge of the box for a marginal offside, Bellingham spun away from Pedri before sliding a pass through to the French striker to slot past Wojciech Szczesny. Madrid peppered Barca’s stand in goalkeeper with shots, but were caught out by a 38th minute counter attack that ended with Marcus Rashford squaring for Fermin to equalise.
Barcelona’s players felt Real defender Dean Huijsen fouled Pau Cubarsi as he tried to clear Eder Militao’s header across the face of goal, but Bellingham was left unmarked at the back post to score, and Huijsen didn’t seem to deny Cubarsi a tackling chance. Mbappe was denied a second when he converted from another offside position following a magical team move started by Vinicius and Bellingham having his effort stopped.
The second half began with VAR intervening once again to award Los Blancos a debatable penalty when the ball inadvertently struck the hand of Eric Garcia as he slid in to challenge Bellingham and the rebound ricocheted back on to him. Szczesny, though, produced a fine one-handed stop to keep out Mbappe’s spot-kick in the 52nd minute.
Bellingham then tapped in from Brahim Diaz’s low cross with 20 minutes remaining but, for a third time, Madrid were denied by an offside call.
Vinicius Junior made his feelings clear to the manager, showing his frustration regarding his substitution with 19 minutes left to play, when he was obviously enjoying the game and didn’t look fatigued at any point.
The visitors struggled to test Real keeper Thibaut Courtois and the match ended in chaos with clashes on the touchline between the rivals.
Tempers flared after Pedri was shown a second yellow card for a lunge on Aurelien Tchouameni deep into injury-time, and the altercation continued after the game ended, with Vinicius, who had earlier protested his own substitution, and Lamine Yamal among those involved. Yamal’s pre-match comments suggesting Real “complain a lot” had supposedly irked the opposition camp.
Speaking about the incident post-match, manager Alonso said: “The last minute fight? I think it reflected the intensity and the importance of the game. I think it’s healthy competition.”
